Humans of New York’s Open Letter to Donald Trump Is Going Viral

Brendon Stanton, the photographer behind the wildly popular Humans of New York Facebook page has written an open letter to Donald Trump that has gone widely viral — the post has received about 200,000 shares as of now, about an hour and a half after he published the open letter on the HONY Facebook page.

Brendon Stanton takes the entire first paragraph to note how hard he tries to be nonpartisan in his work, and indeed, Stanton photographs his subjects and presents them with little-to-no editorializing, a feature which has made his work so popular for allowing the subject to speak their own story.

But Stanton also offers a powerful rationale that opposing Trump “is no longer a political decision. It is a moral one.”

Below is Stanton’s open letter in full:

An Open Letter to Donald Trump:

Mr. Trump,

I try my hardest not to be political. I’ve refused to interview several of your fellow candidates. I didn’t want to risk any personal goodwill by appearing to take sides in a contentious election. I thought: ‘Maybe the timing is not right.’ But I realize now that there is no correct time to oppose violence and prejudice. The time is always now. Because along with millions of Americans, I’ve come to realize that opposing you is no longer a political decision. It is a moral one.

I’ve watched you retweet racist images. I’ve watched you retweet racist lies. I’ve watched you take 48 hours to disavow white supremacy. I’ve watched you joyfully encourage violence, and promise to ‘pay the legal fees’ of those who commit violence on your behalf. I’ve watched you advocate the use of torture and the murder of terrorists’ families. I’ve watched you gleefully tell stories of executing Muslims with bullets dipped in pig blood. I’ve watched you compare refugees to ‘snakes,’ and claim that ‘Islam hates us.’

I am a journalist, Mr. Trump. And over the last two years I have conducted extensive interviews with hundreds of Muslims, chosen at random, on the streets of Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan. I’ve also interviewed hundreds of Syrian and Iraqi refugees across seven different countries. And I can confirm— the hateful one is you.

Those of us who have been paying attention will not allow you to rebrand yourself. You are not a ‘unifier.’ You are not ‘presidential.’ You are not a ‘victim’ of the very anger that you’ve joyfully enflamed for months. You are a man who has encouraged prejudice and violence in the pursuit of personal power. And though your words will no doubt change over the next few months, you will always remain who you are.